Live updates

Teachers at the National Union of Teachers annual conference in Liverpool have called for a boycott of school inspections as they warned they had no confidence in Ofsted chief Sir Michael Wilshaw.

Liam Conway, an NUT member from central Nottinghamshire said:

Good teachers are literally dropping like flies because of Ofsted. We owe it to all of our teachers who are literally being torn to bits by Education Secretary Michael Gove and Sir Michael Wilshaw and their band of crocodiles and lions.

The union must do more to work out a way to boycott Ofsted. It is time to stop hiding behind legal impediments.

Advertisement

The Department for Education has hit back at claims that parents do not support the government’s school reforms.

Only 8% of parents think that the coalition has had a positive impact on the education system since it took power, according to a new poll.

This survey in fact demonstrates the high level of parental support for our reforms.

Almost two-thirds of parents want heads and teachers running their schools, rather than councils - that is why we have given schools more freedom than ever before to do just that through our academies programme.

Our new national curriculum will be significantly slimmer than the current one, and does not tell teachers how to teach its content - this poll finds that 98% of parents support us in that.

Additionally, the vast majority of our new free schools are so popular with parents that they are over-subscribed.

Only 8% of parents think that the coalition has had a positive impact on the education system since it took power, according to a new poll.

The YouGov survey of around 2,000 adults, commissioned by the National Union of Teachers (NUT), also suggests that just 2% of people believe politicians should be able to prescribe what teachers teach.

The survey comes as the NUT meets for its annual conference in Liverpool.

The president of the NASUWT teaching union is set to attack the government's education reforms, claiming they are distracting from the task of teaching children.

Mick Lyons will tell NASUWT's annual conference in Bournemouth hat education is being used as a "political football".

In a speech, he will say: "Daily denigration of the work and commitment of teachers, false claims of plummeting educational standards, and attacks on jobs, salaries, conditions of service and pensions are leaving colleagues heartily sickened and demoralised."

Advertisement

The National Union of Teachers (NUT) and the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT), the biggest teaching unions, are gathering for their annual meetings where they are expected to speak out about pay and Ofsted inspections.

Education Secretary Michael Gove could face another vote of no confidence following a similar move by the the Association of Teachers.

But, according to the Telegraph, Gove is refusing to bow to pressure over the demands of unions, saying “the direction of travel is now fixed” over teachers’ pension and pay arrangements.